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Last year, a retired couple reached out to my firm to learn about our services.

There was a potential fit, so we scheduled a second phone call several weeks later to

continue the conversation. Between the first phone call and the second, they had been

scammed out of nearly $2 million, almost their entire nest egg.

It was a Bernie Madoff-style investment scam in which a fraudulent investment company that looks legitimate

lures you into investing a small amount of money in its quote unquote can't lose strategy.

You typically send them a small amount like $5,000 to start. A few weeks later, they

present you with a fraudulent account statement showing that their recent trades were successful

and that your initial $5,000 investment had increased significantly. With these positive yet

fake results, they then invite you to invest more, maybe $10,000 or $50,000.

The cycle repeats. They once again present you with a fraudulent but real looking

account statement, showing that your investments have increased in value and

suggesting that you deposit more money. Now, some victims are tipped off early. They

recognize it's a scam and they walk away relatively unscathed, maybe losing a few

thousand dollars. Some don't realize it until it's too late and lose hundreds of thousands or

even millions of dollars. While keeping their personal information confidential, I shared what had

happened to this couple with my wife that between our first and second phone call, they had been

scammed out of millions of dollars.

Her initial response was probably similar to what many of you are thinking right now. How would

anyone fall for that? Well, I explained that the people behind these scams, they're professionals,

they're extremely savvy and convincing. In many cases, the process feels so normal that the victim doesn't

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